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The patient-centered ambulatory facility: Convenience is king

Earlier this month, our Toronto office hosted a breakfast session for healthcare clients featuring a presentation by Matthew Stevens of The Advisory Board. His research-based talk focused on the patient-centered ambulatory facility and left the audience of designers and healthcare officials with a number of considerations for moving ambulatory practices into the future.

Across North America, we are experiencing a shift towards the design and construction of more and more ambulatory facilities, inside and outside of hospitals. This enables healthcare organizations to extend their reach beyond the high-acuity setting and provide more convenient services to more patients at, generally, a lower design and construction cost. This model also strengthens disease management and prevention which, in turn, supports an increased focus on health and wellness. According to Mr. Stevens, two main principles anchor the strength of the ambulatory care model and must be reflected in their design:

1. Convenience is king

63% of patients indicate that wait times are “very” or “extremely” important.

Location is always a key consideration when planning healthcare facilities. We generally position healthcare facilities appropriately – responding to demographics, population density, transportation and regional/cultural considerations. But for ambulatory care, there is a need to consider more factors to respond to patient desire for convenience and to support preventative healthcare goals. For example:

Ambulatory care facilities either converted from or embedded within retail settings that have flexible space and ample parking and access by public transportation – “form follows parking” (a phrase offered by one of our client participants)

Walk-in clinics in high-need areas or where vulnerable populations reside – make it easy to seek help!

Embedding clinics within the workplace – a win-win where employee sick time is minimized and convenience is maximized

Many thanks to Matthew Stevens and everyone who made it out to hear him speak. Stantec’s relationship with The Advisory Board gives our health and wellness studio access to leading-edge research in the planning and design of healthcare facilities, and we like to take advantage of it. If you have a burning healthcare question, hot topic, or would like to know about our upcoming educational events, send us an email at events.toronto@stantec.com. We’d love to hear from you! And for more information on our ambulatory care experience, go HERE.

About the Author

Jane Wigle is a senior principal and healthcare architect based in Toronto. Jane is a strong advocate of sustainable design and has been a frequent lecturer at industry conferences on sustainable design and its application in healthcare.